Tennant Creek weather station to stay

Two months after the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) switched off the weather station in Tennant Creek, the federal government has announced it will stay for at least another two years.

Member for Lingiari Warren Snowdon says the government is responding the communities feedback.

"Locals know that the information provided by the weather radar is an essential aid to economic interests, safe transport and planning activity across the Barkly region from the south of Katherine, east to the Queensland border, west to the West Australian border and north of Alice Springs," he says.

"The radar provides a valuable service to the pastoral industry that operates in an area the size of Victoria, with few main roads and some limits on telecommunications. It's great news for Territorians from all walks of life that this service will continue."

In August it was announced that the station would be shut down due to age and the effect of new technology.

In a statement to ABC Rural last year, an advisor to the Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability Senator Don Farrell said new 'wind finding technology' at the site meant the radar was no longer required.

Today Senator Don Farrell said the decision to continue operating the radar had been made because of Minister Snowdon's strong and passionate representations on behalf of the people of Barkly Region.

"Minister Snowdon's representations to me have highlighted how strongly his community feels that the radar's weather watch capability has become an essential source of weather information in the area."

President of the NT Cattlemens Association (NTCA) David Warriner was amongst those who were angry at the decommissioning and says he's happy with today's announcement.

"I think common sense finally prevailed, it's a needed asset, it's an infrastructure item that is needed particularly as the Territory develops," he says.

The NTCA joined local industry in the Barkly in offering to purchase the radar but says there was no real response.

"We didn't hear anything back...there was never any serious dialogue coming back from the government," he says.

Local tradesman Mike Nash lead a community protest against the shut down in December and says the news is just sinking in.

"The reason why I did that blockade was so they couldn't bring in the bulldozers and if they did then we wouldn't be talking right now," he says.